11 comments:

Well, Mary Lee Mary (closest I could come to William Carlos Williams when I am this exhausted!), what an emotional roller coaster this month has been--teehee. I hope to get back to read all of them once I settle back home from my road trip. Happy Poetry Friday!

I just want to take a moment to reflect on what I learned this month writing with you and the other poets who visited your pages. These observations are in no particular order...

* There are a lot of emotions, some that shade into others, but still...! I was more attuned to some emotions than to others. It was interesting to see which ones drew poems and which ones were tougher for me.* Writing more poetry yields more poems. This seems like a "duh!", but the push to write a lot was great for me.* The writing "prompt" helped me grow. Sometimes it seemed helpful to write about things that I might not choose to write about.* Sometimes I wanted to focus on an especially fruitful set of emotions or images, so then the writing prompt got in the way. (More to explore now, I guess!)* Writing caused me to go back and re-read poems to serve as mentors for new poems, which caused me to see them in a new way.* It felt a little bit risky to share writing that was barely dry behind the ears and not far enough out of my head to know how others might read them.* I need to find a consistent time and space to write. Habits are hard to make and break.* You're very good at finding a small number of words that pack a big emotional punch.

Thank you so much for hosting this opportunity. I had a wonderful time writing with you.

I read through your list and nodded at every point. Here are a few more things I've been thinking:

•This project seemed big and open enough to allow a better range of poems. The wonders of the world project last year was too narrow.•After writing a poem a day, I feel a little panicky when I don't write -- it's like I've lost a poem if I don't write. •I worked really hard this year to not write about the prompt "head-on." I'm proud of my slant looks at the emotions.•One of the best parts of the month was the community of writers. It's better to write together than alone.

About Me

I am a fifth grade teacher. I am the author of Reconsidering Read-Aloud (Stenhouse) and I have poems in the Poetry Friday Anthology, the Poetry Friday Anthology for Middle School, the Poetry Friday Anthology for Science, the Poetry Friday Anthology for Celebrations (Pomelo Books), Dear Tomato: An International Crop of Food and Agriculture Poems, National Geographic Books of Nature Poems, The Best of Today's Little Ditty (2014-15 and 2016), Amy Ludwig VanDerwater's Poems are Teachers, National Geographic's The Poetry of US, and IMPERFECT: Poems About Mistakes.